1. Field of the Invention
A crop harvester incorporating a tined pickup drum and a transverse center discharge auger for picking up valuable cut and dried windrowed seed crops. The crop harvester typically incorporates a "John Deere 7700" harvester which is operative to pick up four adjacent rows of seed crop which have been windrowed into a single windrow centered relative to the two middle rows of a four row swath.
When a cut and dried windrow of seed crops is mechanically picked up by a harvester, a reasonable percentage of the total seed content of the windrow fly into the air and back down upon the ground within the center furrow and the previous windrowing operation is not fully effective in windrowing all of the seed crop cut in a four row swath into a windrow overlying only the center two rows and the center furrow therebetween with the result that some of the seed crop remains in the bottom of the furrows disposed immediately adjacent and on either side of the center furrow.
Accordingly, an appreciable percentage of the total seed content in the four row swath of seed crops windrowed into a windrow over the center two rows of the swath lie within the center furrow and the two immediately adjacent furrows on opposite sides of the center furrow, the harvester including front wheels which track in the furrows immediately adjacent and on opposite sides of the center furrow.
In the past, in order to prevent the loss of the seeds or seed pods lying within the furrows, some farmers that grow onions as a seed crop utilized plastic sheeting upon which to place the seed crop upon initial cutting and to thereafter use more expensive methods of harvesting. Although this method reduces the seed loss, it raises additional problems including increased work hours to harvest the crop, the additional cost of plastic sheeting, the problem of transporting new plastic sheeting to the field as well as transport and disposal of the old plastic sheeting and further requires more constant attention during a harvesting operation.
Although the problem of seed crop loss has also been attacked by various methods such as the utilization of high velocity air streams along the underside and above the upperside of a windrow being picked up, even these dramatic attempts at preventing seed loss do not specifically address the loss of those seeds which fall to the bottom of the three furrows beneath and on opposite sides of a windrowed seed crop being picked up.
The harvester of the instant invention incorporates downwardly and oppositely laterally opening vacuum heads each floatingly supported within a corresponding furrow along which the harvester is being moved and at a minimum height above the bottom of the corresponding furrow, the vacuum heads comprising critical components of a vacuum pickup assembly operative to vacuum seeds from within the furrows and to convey the seeds substantially directly into the feeder house of the harvester which receives the remainder of the windrowed seed crop from the pickup roller and auger of the harvester.